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Killing Innocent for Being Witches

Mr Philip Alston, in his most recent report to the Human Rights Council, says: “In too many settings, being classified as a witch is tantamount to receiving a death sentence.”

Shockingly, it is children that are increasingly targeted. A report for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published in January 2009, “Witchcraft Allegations, Refugee Protection and Human Rights”, says the abuse of children accused of witchcraft is common in countries that have suffered years of conflict where traditional social structures have disappeared and where child soldiers have often emerged as a threat.

And in countries where sudden deaths from diseases like AIDS are common, where there are few if any prospects of a better life, and where revivalist churches confirm signs of witchcraft, children are often accused of supernatural powers and persecuted.

Alston concludes: “The persecution and killing of individuals accused of practicing so-called “witchcraft” – the vast majority of whom are women and children – is a significant phenomenon in many parts of the world.” The response to witchcraft “frequently involves serious and systematic forms of discrimination,” he says, “especially on the grounds of gender, age and disability.” The families of the witches are also “often subjected to serious human rights violations.”

In his report, Alston offers an insight into the size of the problem and its geographical spread;

* Reports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) suggest that most of the 25,000 – 50,000 children living on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa are there because they have been accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families. Violence against children accused of witchcraft is increasing, and that children are being kept as prisoners in religious buildings where they are exposed to torture and ill-treatment or even killed under the pretext of exorcism.

* The Special Rapporteur on violence against women has highlighted the problem of witch hunts in India, Nepal and South Africa.

* In Ghana it is thought as many as 2,000 accused witches and their dependents are confined in five different camps. Most of the camp inmates are destitute, elderly women and some have been forced to live there for decades.

* The murder and persecution of people accused of witchcraft in Tanzania is better documented than in most countries. The figures vary widely but it is estimated as many as a thousand, mostly elderly Tanzanian women are targeted and killed annually.

* In Angola, children accused of witchcraft are mistreated

* In Papua New Guinea, provincial police commanders reportedly said there were more than 50 sorcery-related killings in 2008. Other sources have suggested much higher figures.

* In Nigeria, an increasing number of children abandoned or persecuted on the grounds they are witches or wizards.

* In Nepal, elderly women and widows are often singled out and abused in exorcism ceremonies.

Respect for customary beliefs, however does not allow for persecution and murder. Alston recommends in his report that all killings of alleged witches be treated as murder and investigated, prosecuted and punished. And governments, he says, must play their part, taking all available steps to prevent such crimes and prosecute and punish perpetrators.

Alston also recommends that the problems surrounding the persecution and killings be reflected in the guidelines and programs of development agencies operating in countries where there is a significant level of belief in witches and witchcraft. Alston wants more than awareness-raising programmes. He believes protection should be offered to those whose lives are endangered by accusations of witchcraft.

The belief in witchcraft is widespread, it is even an article in the criminal law in a number of countries, so people, including children, can be accused of witchcraft as a formal complaint to be dealt with through the penal judiciary system. Increasingly children become victims of this accusation, and the phenomenon is spreading to countries where it was uncommon or even non-existent before. In some countries more than half of the children in the street are the victims of such an accusation and had to flee form arbitrary punishment and harassment.

There are for the same reason large numbers of children accused of witchcraft in pre-trial detention, locked up to await their trial, brought top the police station upon an accusation by their own family or community. When witchcraft accusations become punishable by law, this can have the adverse effect that the relatives, often their own parents, kill the suspected children in the bush rather than bring them to a police station and then be forced to take the child back and be fined because they have accused them of witchcraft. Another very disturbing fact I learnt was how the children thus accused often believe this themselves and have severe psychological disturbances that also put their lives at risk.

A booklet with very good guidelines on the best ways to deal with the problem entitled : « what is witchcraft abuse ? » was distributed. Go to the publishers’ website : http://www.afruca.org to download it.

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ALAIWAH'S PHILOSOPHY
About 12 years ago, while studying Arabic in Cairo, I became friends with some Egyptian students. As we got to know each other better we also became concerned about each other’s way of life. They wanted to save my soul from eternally burning in hell by converting me to Islam. I wanted to save them from wasting their real life for an illusory afterlife by converting them to the secular worldview I grew up with.
In one of our discussions they asked me if I was sure that there is no proof for God’s existence.
The question took me by surprise. Where I had been intellectually socialized it was taken for granted that there was none.
I tried to remember Kant’s critique of the ontological proof for God. “Fine,” Muhammad said, “but what about this table, does its existence depend on a cause?” “Of course,” I answered. “And its cause depends on a further cause?” Muhammad was referring to the metaphysical proof for God’s existence, first formulated by the Muslim philosopher
Avicenna.
Avicenna argues, things that depend on a cause for their existence must have something that exists through itself as their first cause. And this necessary existent is God. I had a counter-argument to that to which they in turn had a rejoinder. The discussion ended inconclusively.
I did not convert to Islam, nor did my Egyptian friends become atheists. But I learned an important lesson from our discussions: that I hadn’t properly thought through some of the most basic convictions underlying my way of life and worldview — from God’s existence to the human good.
The challenge of my Egyptian friends forced me to think hard about these issues and defend views that had never been questioned in the milieu where I came from.
These discussions gave me first-hand insight into how deeply divided we are on fundamental moral, religious and philosophical questions. While many find these disagreements disheartening, I will argue that they can be a good thing — if we manage to make them fruitful for a culture debate.
Can we be sure that our beliefs about the world match how the world actually is and that our subjective preferences match what is objectively in our best interest? If the truth is important to us these are pressing questions.
We might value the truth for different reasons: because we want to live a life that is good and doesn’t just appear so; because we take knowing the truth to be an important component of the good life; because we consider living by the truth a moral obligation independent of any consequences; or because we want to come closer to God who is the Truth. Of course we wouldn’t hold our beliefs and values if we weren’t convinced that they are true. But that’s no evidence that they are.
Weren’t my Egyptian friends just as convinced of their views as I was of mine? More generally: don’t we find a bewildering diversity of beliefs and values, all held with great conviction, across different times and cultures? If considerations such as these lead you to concede that your present convictions could be false, then you are a fallibilist.
And if you are a fallibilist you can see why valuing the truth and valuing a culture of debate are related: because you will want to critically examine your beliefs and values, for which a culture of debate offers an excellent setting.
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